Chairman of Tax Panel Won’t Run This Year

WASHINGTON — Representative Dave Camp, the Michigan Republican who is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced Monday that he would not run for re-election.

“This decision was reached after much consideration and discussion with my family,” Mr. Camp, 60, said in a statement.

“Serving in Congress is the great honor of my professional life,” he said. “I am deeply grateful to the people of the Fourth Congressional District for placing their trust in me. Over the years, their unwavering support has been a source of strength, purpose and inspiration.”

The retirement of Mr. Camp, who was first elected to Congress in 1990 — the same class as the House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio — did not come as a surprise to many on Capitol Hill. His six-year term as the top Republican on the tax-writing committee ends this year, leaving an opening for Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican Party’s 2012 vice-presidential nominee, to replace him.

After briefly considering running for the open Michigan Senate seat last year, Mr. Camp instead redoubled his efforts to overhaul and simplify the nation’s tax code. He released his own tax plan in February, but his proposal — the product of nearly three years of work — was opposed by members of both parties almost as soon as he announced it.

Mr. Camp’s tax overhaul efforts were dealt another blow last year when he lost his Senate negotiating partner, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who became the ambassador to China.

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, now leads the Finance Committee, and he has a long relationship with Mr. Ryan from their efforts to revamp Medicare.

Under Mr. Camp’s plan, the tax rate for about 99 percent of Americans would have been, at most, 25 percent, but the remaining 1 percent, whose income is above $450,000 or so, would also have been subject to a 10 percent tax surcharge on certain types of income.

The surcharge would have affected salaried professionals like lawyers and accountants, while excluding those whose income comes from industries that produce goods, like manufacturing and farming.

In his statement, Mr. Camp said he would continue to work hard to accomplish his goals before he officially left office. “During the next nine months, I will redouble my efforts to grow our economy and expand opportunity for every American by fixing our broken tax code, permanently solving physician payments for seniors, strengthening the social safety net and finding new markets for U.S. goods and services,” he said.

If he had sought another term, Mr. Camp would have had plenty of money for a race. His campaign committee reported $3.4 million in cash on hand at the end of last year.

Mr. Boehner said Mr. Camp was “a leader in the fight to increase economic growth and help create more American jobs by reforming our tax code, pushing for more effective free trade agreements, and saving Social Security and Medicare for future generations.”

Representative Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, saw Mr. Camp’s retirement in more partisan terms: “Yet another senior Republican committee chairman is abandoning John Boehner and his toxic Republican Congress,” Mr. Israel said in a statement.

With Mr. Camp’s announcement, 23 Republicans in the House have said they will retire at the end of the year, are seeking another office, or have already left.

He joins three other members of the Michigan delegation — two Democrats, Senator Carl Levin and Representative John D. Dingell, and a Republican, Representative Mike Rogers — who are stepping down.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Chairman of Tax Panel Won’t Run This Year. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe